France beats Serbia 97-96 in overtime

[eric365]

Huge game. Really great to watch.

TP with 24 points on 6/20 and only 2 assists. But he had 6 steals, good defense and was not 100% healthy (game time decision).

Batum choked 2 FT to win the game at the end of the regulation but was great in overtime.

France advance in the 2nd round with Germany and Serbia with a 2-0 record.
They will face the Turkey Wednesday, Lithuania Friday and Spain Sunday !

Only 1 victory is needed to advance in quarterfinal

[Bruno]

Awesome game but winning 1 more game won't be that easy.

It sucks that GB has beaten Poland today because facing Poland would have been way less difficult than Turkey.

[Anonymous Cowherd]

It does not suck! :P

[ForeignFan]

Awesome game but winning 1 more game won't be that easy.

It sucks that GB has beaten Poland today because facing Poland would have been way less difficult than Turkey.

It does suck. And it made it quite useful to beat Serbia. Though it won't be easy, I trust France can beat either Turkey or Lithuania.
The game was great. I could not believe it when Batum missed two freebies at the end of Q4 ! I am so happy for him we won. He would have blamed himself for the loss though he played well. Good game by Noah + Seraphin, Gelebale, Diaw great as well. They dominated the paint. It took some time for TP to warm up. Apparently his thigh was sore early in the game and at the end as well. Too bad he had to play 40'.

[ElNono]

Hope Batum is ok. That hit on the floor looked scary bad

[Pauleta14]

I hope Tony didn't aggravate his thigh injury, there are so many (tough) games to play and I don't see how it can get better by playing...

The Turkey game next wednesday is a MUST WIN in that regrard, so that Collet can rest him a little.

Batum is killing me with his game, he is capable of the best and the worst in the spam of a minute...

[velik_m]

France already half-way to semi-finals :tu

[will_spurs]

I really really wonder how the groups were made. It's totally ridiculous that groups A and B were so tough in the first round, and then they have to square off in the 2nd round, while the two weakest groups meet. At this point apart maybe from Greece I wonder if there's any team out of groups C and D that can beat any of the qualified teams from groups A and B.

Turkey going through instead of Poland wasn't so good, but it has the advantage that all the teams in group A have only 1 win (thanks to Spain inexplicably losing to Turkey). If Spain had beaten Turkey they would have had 2 wins too. This means 1 win is probably going to be enough for France to reach the QF, even if that means a bad ranking.

[temujin]

I really really wonder how the groups were made. It's totally ridiculous that groups A and B were so tough in the first round, and then they have to square off in the 2nd round, while the two weakest groups meet. At this point apart maybe from Greece I wonder if there's any team out of groups C and D that can beat any of the qualified teams from groups A and B.

Turkey going through instead of Poland wasn't so good, but it has the advantage that all the teams in group A have only 1 win (thanks to Spain inexplicably losing to Turkey). If Spain had beaten Turkey they would have had 2 wins too. This means 1 win is probably going to be enough for France to reach the QF, even if that means a bad ranking.

Guess what, the president of FIBA Europe was G. Vassilakopoulos, a grecian.

How surprising. Georgia Macedonia.......... What a joke.

[hater]

Grievis Vazquez must have been out with an injury

[baseline bum]

I'll definitely have to check that game with Turkey to get a glimpse of Kanter against a good team.

[TimDunkem]

I wish my ESPN on Xbox Live app was working. The stream on the website itself is just too slow for me. :depressed

[romain.star]

I really really wonder how the groups were made. It's totally ridiculous that groups A and B were so tough in the first round, and then they have to square off in the 2nd round, while the two weakest groups meet. At this point apart maybe from Greece I wonder if there's any team out of groups C and D that can beat any of the qualified teams from groups A and B.

Turkey going through instead of Poland wasn't so good, but it has the advantage that all the teams in group A have only 1 win (thanks to Spain inexplicably losing to Turkey). If Spain had beaten Turkey they would have had 2 wins too. This means 1 win is probably going to be enough for France to reach the QF, even if that means a bad ranking.

If the group stage is really indeed ridiculous, it could be a blessing in disguise for France. No Spain, no Serbia, no Lithuania in quarter final (IF there's a quarter final...)

[Bruno]

FNT beat Turkey 68-64 today and with Lithunia win over Serbia, they are now qualified for the QF. The last 2 games against Lithunia and Spain should be less intense with Collet using more his bench to rest his starters. Gelabale sprained his ankle today, let's hope he will be back for the QF. It would be great if France can end not in the same side of the bracket than Spain.

The game against Lithuania and Serbia was amazing with a great Lithuanian crowd. Javtokas played very well in his usual role . It's noteworthy that both Valenciunas and Kanter have done extremely well in this Eurobasket despite their young age. Tristan Thompson better be great fro Cavs.

[ForeignFan]

FNT beat Turkey 68-64 today and with Lithunia win over Serbia, they are now qualified for the QF. The last 2 games against Lithunia and Spain should be less intense with Collet using more his bench to rest his starters. Gelabale sprained his ankle today, let's hope he will be back for the QF. It would be great if France can end not in the same side of the bracket than Spain. .

That was a tough 4th quarter. French commentators sounded like they lived through France-Greece of a few years ago all again...
Nice to see that TP sealed the game with 5 FTs in the last minute or so. Really looked like a veteran.

[Bruno]

Yep, Parker was good but he is too tired and banged up. It's not surprising given that he played his 6th game in 8 days. The QF will be next Wednesday or Thursday which should allow him to be back at 100% for it.

[will_spurs]

It would be great if France can end not in the same side of the bracket than Spain.

Do you remember which championship it was where France won all its games (and I think kinda "forgot" to tank against Greece if I remember well), and ended up playing Spain in the first elimination game?

I have this feeling that France will finish 1st of its group, Spain 3rd (so that we are in the same bracket for the semis) and Greece 4th in the other group, so that we have the hardest match-ups possible despite finishing first.

I've always thought that in this kind of championships, but also in the NBA playoffs, the top seed should be able to pick its opponent, etc.

[Pauleta14]

It was during the last one in 2009, France won all its gamesand lost against Sapin in quarter final...:bang

And didn't lose a game since.

You , indeed need a lot of luck whitch France has always lacked.This is not the only example.

[mathbzh]

Do you remember which championship it was where France won all its games (and I think kinda "forgot" to tank against Greece if I remember well), and ended up playing Spain in the first elimination game?

I have this feeling that France will finish 1st of its group, Spain 3rd (so that we are in the same bracket for the semis) and Greece 4th in the other group, so that we have the hardest match-ups possible despite finishing first.

I've always thought that in this kind of championships, but also in the NBA playoffs, the top seed should be able to pick its opponent, etc.

You can't compare the situation with the 2009 Euro. France can beat any team in group F. And while Russia and Slovenia may be the teams to avoid, Greece or Macedonia would not be easy.

In 2009, Spain was The team to avoid in the QF, the only team we had no chance to beat.

IMO France should rest the starters. Group F plays after us so there is no point trying to calculate who we will play when all the teams in group F will probably try to avoid Spain (and Lithuania?).

[Bruno]

I have this feeling that France will finish 1st of its group, Spain 3rd (so that we are in the same bracket for the semis) and Greece 4th in the other group, so that we have the hardest match-ups possible despite finishing first.

I'm not sold on Greece being the hardest opponent for the QF. They are still a pain in the ass to play but they are also missing a lot of players. Russia and Slovenia look a little stronger.

[sonic21]

imo France has to play at 100% against Lithunia to win and make sure spain finish 1 or 2 (only if spain wins against serbia before).

[will_spurs]

Group F plays after us so there is no point trying to calculate who we will play when all the teams in group F will probably try to avoid Spain (and Lithuania?).

I find it weird that the end of the second round isn't like the end of the first round, the last 6 games should have been played at the same time.

And re: group F there's probably no good position, I'm pretty sure all these teams want to avoid Spain for obvious reasons, Lithuania because they play at home, France is probably impressing a few people too. Even the 4th team (Serbia or Turkey) would probably be kind of a nightmare match-up.

I took a closer look at the dates and I would say finishing 1st or 3rd would be better (2 days rest between end of 2nd round and QF + 1 day extra rest before semis) rather than 2nd or 4th (3 days rest which is too long, then back-to-back QF and semis).

[ForeignFan]

I'm not sold on Greece being the hardest opponent for the QF. They are still a pain in the ass to play but they are also missing a lot of players. Russia and Slovenia look a little stronger.

5' before end of Q3 : Greece 44-37 Slovenia (which is getting closer and closer...)

[ForeignFan]

IMO France should rest the starters.
no doubt they will

[ForeignFan]

Greece finally beat Slovenia.
It is a tough call to predict who is going to finish 2/3/4 between Greece (2/1, to play vs Russia), Slovenia (1/2, to play vs Macedonia) and Macedonia (3/0 but to play vs Russia and Slovenia)...